Fractured Fairytales

The Emerald in the Tower

A long time ago, in the province of Munchkinland in Oz, there lived a married couple: Frexspar the Godly, a preacher, and Melena, the Thropp Second Descending of Colwen Grounds. They had long wished for a child, but to no avail. Finally Melena came to believe that the good Lord would fulfill her wish, and her husband concurred.

Through the small rear window of these people's house they could see into a splendid garden that was filled with the most beautiful flowers and herbs. The garden was surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared enter, because it belonged to a sorceress named La Mombey Impeccata who possessed great power and was feared by everyone.

One day Melena was standing at this window, and she saw a bed planted with the most beautiful rapunzel. It looked so fresh and green that she longed for some. It was her greatest desire to eat some of the rapunzel. This desire increased with every day, and not knowing how to get any, she became miserably ill.

Frexspar was frightened, and asked her, "What ails you, dear wife?"

"Oh," she answered, "if I do not get some rapunzel from the garden behind our house, I shall die."

The man, who loved her dearly, thought, "Before you let your wife die, you must get her some of the rapunzel, whatever the cost."

So just as it was getting dark he climbed over the high wall into La Mombey's garden, hastily dug up a handful of rapunzel, and took it to his wife. She immediately made a salad from it, which she devoured eagerly.

It tasted so very good to her that by the next day her desire for more had grown threefold. If she were to have any peace, Frexspar would have to climb into the garden once again. Thus he set forth once again just as it was getting dark. But no sooner than he had climbed over the wall than, to his horror, he saw La Mombey standing there before him.

"How can you dare," she asked with an angry look, "to climb into my garden and like a thief to steal my rapunzel? You will pay for this."

"Oh," he answered, "Let mercy overrule justice. I came to do this out of necessity. My wife saw your rapunzel from our window, and such a longing came over her, that she would die, if she did not get some to eat."

La Mombey's anger abated somewhat, and she said, "If things are as you say, I will allow you to take as much rapunzel as you want. But under one condition: You must give me the child that your wife will bring to the world. It will do well, and I will take care of it like a mother."

In his fear the man agreed to everything.

But, unbeknownst to the couple, the rapunzel was tainted with dark magic, and that magic tainted their unborn child.

When the woman gave birth, the sorceress appeared, named the little girl Elphaba, for she looked exactly like a little tree elf, with green skin, and took her away. Elphaba became the most beautiful child under the sun, despite her skin. When she was twelve years old, the witch locked her in a tower that stood in a forest and that had neither a door nor a stairway, but only a tiny little window at the very top.

When the witch wanted to enter, she stood below and called out:
"Little Elf, Little Elf,
Let down your hair to me."

Elphaba had splendid long hair, blacker than midnight and with a shine like the pelt of a healthy giltebeast. When she heard the sorceress's voice, she untied her braids, wound them around a window hook, let her hair fall twenty yards to the ground, and the sorceress climbed up it.